State Wades Into O.C. Runoff Flap

Go to the mouth of the San Gabriel River in Seal Beach, and you’ll usually see two things: a flock of long-board surfers drawn by the warm water and long rides, and black-and-yellow signs warning of a health hazard in the water.

The dangerous conditions can’t be blamed on a sewage spill or irresponsible factory operators dumping toxic goo. The river has been fouled by water spilling from streets and storm drains along its 29-mile course from the San Gabriel Mountains to the Pacific Ocean.

Along the way, the river absorbs runoff containing motor oil, pet waste, pesticides and myriad other contaminants that wash off 635 square miles of asphalt, lawns and other patches of urban landscape in Los Angeles, Orange and San Bernardino counties. And the San Gabriel River is just one of five major waterways that traverse Orange County’s nearly 800 square miles to its shores.

Only when this noxious stew reaches the ocean do most people see firsthand the environmental damage and health risks it poses. On Friday, county health officials were warning swimmers to avoid stretches of Huntington State Beach, Newport Beach, Dana Point and San Clemente.

Finding ways to prevent and clean up runoff has been an elusive goal of federal and state environmental agencies for decades. In California, runoff is a multibillion-dollar problem that often has developers, environmentalists and local governments at odds.

As early as next month, state water officials who enforce the federal Clean Water Act in Orange County may enact standards about what the county and cities must do to stop polluted urban runoff from tainting local creeks, streams and shorelines.

The new rules will cover a host of ways to improve water quality: from the mundane--how often street gutters must be cleaned--to the dramatic--whether builders must install new technology to prevent runoff in nearly every new development.

Because of those regulations, the Santa Ana Regional Water Quality Control Board is being bombarded with criticism on all fronts.

Environmentalists accuse the agency of failing to adopt what they say are more effective and aggressive actions taken in Los Angeles and San Diego. Instead, they say the board, which has jurisdiction over northern and central Orange County, is catering to the needs of developers and local governments at the ocean’s expense.

Builders argue the standards will require costly improvements that will drive up housing costs and still not lead to cleaner water. The county and cities are split.

All this comes at a time when builders are crafting blueprints for some of the last great expanses of developable land in Orange County, meaning the five-year, storm-water permit the water board is proposing will have an effect far beyond its life span.

“The fundamental purpose of this permit is to address the No. 1 source of water pollution in Orange County,” said David Beckman, an attorney with the Natural Resources Defense Council’s Los Angeles office. “There is nothing more important that the board will do in the next five years.”

The water board is proposing to give the county and cities two years to develop a regional approach to cleanse runoff, an approach that some see as less stringent than that taken in Los Angeles and San Diego counties.

The regional water board is charged with enacting the standards under the Clean Water Act’s mandate to make all American waters swimmable and fishable. Urban runoff, which brings bacteria, heavy metals and other pollutants to the ocean, is public enemy No. 1 in this fight.

Scientists at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore reported last week that more than half of all waterborne disease outbreaks in the United States in the last half-century followed a period of heavy rainfall and subsequent runoff.

With all the unhappiness among activists and builders, and with millions of dollars in added cleanup at stake, whatever action the water board takes in Orange County likely will be appealed, all sides concede.

The proposed standards anger environmentalists, who say they are vague and unenforceable.

“North of Orange County and south of Orange County, the water boards have significantly improved the quality of their storm-water permits,” Beckman said. “Orange County is sort of an island unto itself right now with a substandard approach.”

Environmentalist Garry Brown said the proposed rules fail to protect marine resources and will cause already degraded waters to get worse.

But Kurt Berchtold, the regional water board’s assistant executive officer, said the board’s plan is just a different approach to solving the same problem.

“We believe there’s potential in the regional approach because it would have the ability to address not just new development, but existing development,” he said. “It could result in more effective water-quality [protection] long-term.”

Developers Don’t Want Added Costs

One of the biggest points of contention is how major new developments should deal with runoff--including subdivisions of 10 or more homes, commercial projects larger than 100,000 square feet and major redevelopment projects, such as the addition of a large parking lot.

In Los Angeles County, state water officials adopted standards for such developments, requiring that the first 3/4 of an inch of rainfall be cleansed before it leaves a property. San Diego County has similar requirements.

This is considered critical because the first rainfall is often the dirtiest, picking up pet waste, lawn fertilizer and other contaminants that have accumulated on streets and lawns.

Many expected the Orange County storm-water runoff standards to follow suit.

One approach proposed by the Irvine Ranch Water District would send runoff from new and existing developments to artificial wetlands built miles away. Existing wetlands already help to purify runoff flowing through them. But less than 5% of Southern California’s coastal wetlands remain.

Some environmentalists want more immediate results.

Developers and municipalities have had years to clean up their act and have failed, said Daniel Cooper of Attorneys for Clean Water. The proposed rules for Orange County would let the developers and municipalities continue to do nothing for another two years, he added.

However, building industry representatives, such as Laer Pearce, are thrilled about a regional approach to treating runoff.

“Everyone I talk to commends the Santa Ana regional board for trying to have a voice of reason,” he said.

Still, developers are unhappy with other facets of the proposed rules, some of which they believe would undermine the regional approach.

For instance, the standards would require all bodies of water to meet state water-quality standards, even if runoff flows into them.

Before the runoff enters an artificial wetland, it would be dirty, and therefore out of compliance, said Tim Piasky, environmental affairs director for the Building Industry Assn. of Southern California.

“It basically puts everyone in noncompliance from Day One,” he said.

County government officials and representatives of some local cities also question several provisions, including a requirement that runoff be cleansed to the “maximum extent practicable” before it is sent into storm-drain systems. Such a standard, they say, goes farther than the mandates of the federal Clean Water Act.

Some Want Standards Made More Strict

Still other local officials feel the proposed runoff standards do not go far enough. Newport Beach Deputy City Manager Dave Kiff said the new policy requires that every resident in the region be contacted once a year in a public education campaign on urban runoff. Kiff wants people to be bombarded with the problem.

Kiff said increasing public awareness about how each resident’s actions can make a difference could reduce costly cleanups and keep pollutants out of runoff in the first place.

“Billboards, bus stop signs, movie theater trailers--there’s a lot of ways to bring the message home,” Kiff said. “The bottom line for all of us working on this is, the message isn’t getting out.”

Other water quality boards in Southern California are perplexed by the proposed rules in Orange County.

The San Diego Regional Water Quality Control Board, which will issue a storm-water permit for south Orange County later this year, had planned to model its requirements after the standards adopted for northern and central Orange County.

Not anymore, said board member Wayne Baglin. The South County permit will be modeled after the more stringent rules found in the rest of Southern California.

“Regional boards are not meant to be wet nurses,” Baglin said. “They are regulatory bodies.”

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Controlling Runoff

State water officials are poised to renew a controversial storm water permit for northern and central Orange County. Activists say it is weaker than permits adopted for Los Angeles and San Diego counties, which require most new developments to deal with the first flush of rain. Instead, the Orange County permit gives municipalities two years to come up with a regional approach. Here’s what a typical commercial developer outside Orange County faces:

Detention basin

Total capital cost: $28,800

Annual maintenance: $33

Infiltration basin and vegetated swale

Total capital cost: $17,550

Annual maintenance: $1,350

Catch basin filters

Total capital cost: $1,500

Annual maintenance: $495

Source: Los Angeles Reginal Water Quality Control Board and city of Los Angeles